Outline of Proverbs

A proverb is a simple, concrete, traditional saying that expresses a truth based on common sense or experience. Proverbs are often metaphorical and use formulaic language. Collectively, they form a genre of folklore.

Proverb is a short saying that is commonly known by public, and repeated as a piece of advice or suggestion. A proverb usually expresses the common truth.

What is a proverb? Lord John Russell (c. 1850) observed poetically that a “proverb is the wit of one, and the wisdom of many.” But giving the word “proverb” the sort of definition theorists need has proven to be a difficult task, and although scholars often quote Archer Taylor’s argument that formulating a scientific “definition of a proverb is too difficult to repay the undertaking… An incommunicable quality tells us this sentence is proverbial and that one is not. Hence no definition will enable us to identify positively a sentence as proverbial,” many students of proverbs have attempted to itemize its essential characteristics.

“Don’t feed the bad wolf”
Cherokee proverb

Proverbs related articles

We have searched and collected the best proverbs around the word that hat state a general truth or piece of advice. Every culture has a collection of wise sayings that offer advice about how to live your life.

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